Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Another Chapter Has Begun!

Platte City 1st ward, and 2nd Branch- I will never, ever forget you. I love you with all my heart.

Brother and Sister Edwards- you are sunshine to my soul and I promise I will write! You have become family and will always be family to me :)

I will never be the same because of that area.

Well...I am now serving in the Independence 3rd ward with Sister Sibbett from Hawaii!

It really is so weird to be back in the Visitor's Center. I feel like I just left.. There are all new sisters and a different feel, but it's still the gospel and I know it's true so I can be happy :)

Haha, change is always hard though. Originally when we got transfer calls I was supposed to be going to the Raytown ward in Independence to be in a trio companionship with Sister Minall and Sister Coplan, but then a new sister that was coming from the MTC ended up getting sick the night before she left, and went home, so they moved me to 3rd ward and moved Sis Sibbett's companion, Sis Touli, out to Wichita the next day after we already had transfer calls. So, it was kind of a shock for all of us.

BUT- I love Sis Sibbett, she's been out about 5 months and is on fire- so we are going to work, work, and work some more! 3rd ward is great so far! There is a lot of diversity in this ward. Many of the members are from the Dominican, so I will definitely be needing my Spanish now. Haha. We have a lot of former investigators that only speak Spanish so I really have to step it up and practice, practice, practice. I'm scared to death, but now I think I understand why Heavenly Father switched me over to Spanish. Juntos podemos, con Padre Celestial que es. Haha.

Well, I don't have too many exciting stories at that moment. I've just been adjusting to the area again and being around all the sisters. I feel like I'm a new missionary all over again. It really is overwhelming coming from a full proselyting area back to an area where there are lots of missionaries around you! But, as I got here, I realized that within those 3 short transfers out in Platte City, I changed, I changed a lot. And it was so relieving to know that all of my efforts to change and become better were working! Granted, I still have lots more to change and do, but I was grateful to Heavenly Father for allowing me to have this new area so I could see just how much I was changing.

Yesterday we had our zone conference, and it was amazing. President Keyes honestly is so inspired and is such a loving and caring leader. I know that he truly is called of God to be my mission president at this time. He talked to us about the things that we needed to do to maintain that spirituality that we felt during the temple open house. He called this the:

4 Cornerstones to Spirituality-

1) Obedience- he said that when we are being disobedient, no matter how hard we try to do the other 3 things, it won't make a difference. When we are disobedient as missionaries, we are breaking covenants.

2) Prayer- how true that is. Prayer is the passport to peace and a refuge for safety. It is the way that we communicate with our Heavenly Father. He also promised us that every single time we pray and ask for strength, Heavenly Father will ALWAYS answer that prayer. No questions asked.

3) Scripture study- President said that if we want answers to our prayers, than we need to study! It's how Heavenly Father talks back. He said, "I promise that as you prayerfully study, you will have more meaningful prayers, and you will gain a deeper testimony of the gospel."

4) Partaking of the Sacrament worthily- he talked about how truly important this is for us, and how when we go to church and partake of the bread and water, our minds need to be centered on the atonement, and we should be thinking about how we can be strengthened through Christ.

I know these are things that we all know we should do, but the way that he put everything just made sense. Ah, I just love this mission. I love how Heavenly Father always knows what we need, where we need to be, and who we need to be with. Time flies too fast, and I really want to be better. I want to leave this mission a million times better than how I was before I came. I'm thankful for the opportunity that I have now to be serving in Indy 3rd ward, and I'm excited to get to use what little Spanish I do know, more fully. The Gospel is true. I promise, if any of you are struggling, that if you just apply the 4 cornerstones to spirituality in your life, you will be happy, and you will know what you need to do with the decisions you have to make in your life. Doubt not, fear not, in every way acknowledge Him!